The Power of Youth

"Never underestimate youth,” says Peter Martins, who in his 37 years with New York City Ballet has seen more than a few young dancers achieve early stardom. Martins’s innovative new production of Romeo and Juliet, which premieres on May 1 at the New York State Theater, is a departure both for him as a creative artist and for its casting.

NYCB’s ballet master in chief has looked outside the company’s long roster of dancers for a Juliet glowing with the blush of youth: Instead of a NYCB principal, the role will be danced by a 16-year-old student in the company’s school.

Impetuous and passionate, the Juliet of Shakespeare’s play is still a young girl. “My child is yet a stranger in the world; She hath not seen the change of 14 years,” says Lord Capulet. Yet when the play is translated to ballet, often the role is the prerogative of a leading dancer who is twice Juliet’s age. “With all respect to the Romeo and Juliets that I have watched in my lifetime,” says Martins, “they all have something to say, but it always bothered me that I saw a grand, great ballerina being praised for being able to portray a 14-year-old. I say, ‘Why not the real thing?’”

Martins found “the real thing” at School of American Ballet, the venerable training facility associated with NYCB. Callie Bachman, an SAB student since 2003, is rehearsing the role of Juliet along with three classmates. Being tapped for such a major role is thrilling and a little terrifying. “In the beginning, rehearsals were nerve-wracking because I had never worked one-on-one with Peter before,” says Bachman. “It was intimidating at first. But he has been great to work with.”

The creative process has involved more give-and-take than young dancers are often accustomed to, with Martins proposing steps and the dancers trying to execute his vision. “We’ve been experimenting a lot and doing new steps that haven’t really been done before,” says Bachman. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s really fun no matter what.” Working with younger dancers has been different for Martins, too. “They are all exceedingly polite and courteous,” says Martins. “And there is a reverence that I am not quite used to. It’s very apropos for the role.”

Bachman’s Romeo is Robby Fairchild, 19, currently in his first year as a corps dancer with NYCB. “The Romeos are a little bit older and there is a practical reason for that,” says Martins. “Romeo has to partner a girl. It is still a ballet. It is difficult to find 16-year-old boys who could handle that. They need to be a little stronger, a little more mature.”

Both dancers stress the importance of conveying the emotional journey of their characters and the depth and desperation of the love between them. Bachman and Fairchild are preparing for their roles by reading the play, listening to the music, watching the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film (which features teenaged actors) and studying notes—including an in-depth analysis of the characters and an overview of the story—that Martins has given them. Fairchild’s older sister Megan, a principal with NYCB, gave him his copy of the play and a DVD of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in The Royal Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet. Nureyev’s could be an intimidating interpretation to follow, but Fairchild says he doesn’t plan on comparing himself to anyone else. “The choreography is completely different,” he says. “And I’m focusing on the role itself. I feel a little more comfortable with it being a story ballet, because it’s not me. It’s Romeo. You can hide behind the character a little bit and be him instead of yourself. It’s less scary.”

Martins acknowledges that there are risks involved in resting an ambitious new production on the shoulders of untested dancers. “You can imagine my whole idea of having a 16-year-old student portraying Juliet is nervous-making,” he says. “Because although I know that the people I chose are perfectly capable technically as dancers to do it, I also knew that I wanted this pure innocence to emerge. What I didn’t know, and still to a degree do not know, is whether they will be able to carry the whole show. I would say that I still have faith that I will get what I had hoped for.”

Fairchild, for one, is excited. “I look forward to every single rehearsal,” he says. “If it’s not on the schedule, I get kind of bummed. It’s just so much fun, creating a whole new ballet.”

The casting is not the only innovation in Martins’s production. To create a unique look for the sets and costumes, Martins turned again to Danish painter Per Kirkeby, who also designed the NYCB production of Swan Lake. “He is what you might want to call an abstract painter, although he is able to be very Romantic,” says Martins. “And this is a neo-Romantic rendition of Romeo and Juliet.” Inspired by the multifunctional set piece painter Georges Rouault designed for Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Martins asked Kirkeby to create a set piece that could be transformed before the audience’s eyes. The result is one all-encompassing unit that changes from a building in a Veronese street scene into a bedroom, ballroom, balcony, garden, chapel and ultimately a tomb. “What I didn’t want was black curtains coming down as there was a scenery change in the back. When you hear all the noise, it kills the magic,” says Martins.

The scene changes will take less than a minute, enabling Martins to streamline the Prokofiev score. With the elimination of one of the customary two intermissions, Martins’s Romeo and Juliet has an estimated running time of two hours and 20 minutes, far shorter than the three hours most productions last. “I have tried to be very respectful of Prokofiev’s musical intentions and the integrity of the score,” says Martins. “I have not eliminated any music. I carefully studied the score and came to realize that music written for scenery changes was basically music that you either had already heard or would hear later on.”

The new production is part of the company’s ongoing tribute to Lincoln Kirstein, who cofounded SAB and NYCB with Balanchine. “Lincoln always talked about continuation,” says Martins. “You are a young dancer, you become a principal dancer, you hand over your knowledge to the next generation and life goes on. It’s a cycle. I think this Romeo and Juliet is very much about that.” That thought may have led Martins to cast Jock Soto and Darci Kistler, both teachers at SAB, as Lord and Lady Capulet. “When I asked them if the two of them would consider becoming Lord and Lady Capulet, at first they were somewhat taken aback,” says Martins. “Jock is retired, but Darci is still dancing. But now that we have choreographed a whole section, they are engaged and want to do it very much. And I think that is very much in Lincoln’s spirit.”

The ballet represents a progression for Martins. In his productions of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, he was careful to pay tribute to the traditions of Balanchine, Petipa and Ivanov. With Romeo and Juliet, he has felt free to do his own thing. “I’m having the time of my life,” he says. “I love the concept, the music is sublime—perhaps the best thing he ever wrote—and I love my dancers. I am thrilled to be walking into a studio every day. It’s really an up moment for me.”

What's going on in ballet this week? We've pulled together some highlights.

The Bolshoi Premiere of John Neumeier's Anna Karenina

Last July Hamburg Ballet presented the world premiere of John Neumeier's Anna Karenina, a modern adaptation on Leo Tolstoy's famous novel. Hamburg Ballet coproduced the full-length ballet with the National Ballet of Canada and the Bolshoi, the latter of which will premiere the work March 23 (NBoC will have its premiere in November). The production will feature Bolshoi star Svetlana Zakharova in the title role. This is especially fitting as Neumeier's initial inspiration for the ballet came from Zakharova while they were working together on his Lady of the Camellias. The following video delves into what makes this production stand out.

In one of 60 spacious dance studios at the Beijing Dance Academy, Pei Yu Meng practices a tricky step from Jorma Elo's Over Glow. She's standing among other students, but they all work alone, with the help of teachers calling out corrections from the front of the room. On top of her strong classical foundation and clean balletic lines, Pei Yu's slithery coordination and laser-sharp focus give her dancing a polished gleam. Once she's mastered the pirouette she's been struggling with, she repeats the step over and over until the clock reaches 12 pm for lunch. Here, every moment is a chance to approach perfection.

Pei Yu came to the school at age 10 from Hebei, a province near Beijing. Now 20, and in her third year of BDA's professional program, she is an example of a new kind of Chinese ballet student. Founded in 1954 by the country's communist government, BDA is a fully state-funded professional training school with close to 3,000 students and 275 full-time teachers over four departments (ballet, classical Chinese dance, social dance and musical theater). It offers degrees in performance, choreography and more. BDA's ballet program has long been known for fostering pristine Russian-style talent. But since 2011, the school has made major efforts to broaden ballet students' knowledge of Chinese dance traditions and the works of Western contemporary ballet choreographers. Pointe went inside this prestigious academy to see how BDA trains its dancers.

Dutch National Ballet Soloist Michaela DePrince has been busy winning over the mainstream media. Since last spring, the First Position star not only landed a spokesmodel deal with Jockey, but she also recently teamed up on a commercial with Chase Bankand just announced that Madonna will be directing her upcoming biopic,Taking Flight (totally casual).

What could possibly be next? The cover of April's Harper's Bazaar Netherlands, it turns out. Posing in an arabesque with her hair slicked back in her usual ballet bun, DePrince traded in her leotard and tights for a stunning metallic Gucci dress (can we do that, too?).

Dancing with The Royal Ballet from 1992 until 2013, former principal Leanne Benjamin tackled just about every role in the classical gamut, from Juliet to Nikiya to Giselle. As the young and spirited Swanilda in this clip from Coppélia, Benjamin reveals that she has equal talent for the silly as the serious. Her comedic performance in Swanilda's doll dance is this role at its best.

In an effort to trick the scheming Dr. Coppelius and save her beloved Franz, Swanilda pretends she is the doll Coppélia come to life. As she begins to dance, Benjamin is stiff and mechanical one moment and then flopped over like a rag doll the next. Dr. Coppelius, played by character artist Luke Heydon, watches her enthralled and Benjamin's gaze is fixed in a plastic stare. But when the toymaker looks away, Benjamin's Swanilda breaks doll character and frantically tries to figure out an escape. Feebly, Dr. Coppelius tries to keep up with her. Although we feel some sympathy for the delusional old toymaker, we can't help laughing at Swanilda's antics. And that slap at 1:55? Gets us every time. Happy #ThrowbackThursday!

Deep in the basement of Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater is a small, windowless space that's home to nearly 6,000 pairs of pointe shoes, neatly stacked on shelves that reach to the ceiling. It's New York City Ballet's shoe room, and for company members, it's one of the most important places in the world. Dancers frequently stop by to search for the ideal pair for a special performance, or to tweak their custom pointe shoe orders, trying to get that elusive perfect fit. "If the shoe isn't right, the dancer can't do her job," says shoe room supervisor and former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal Linnette Roe. We talked to Roe and NYCB soloist Emilie Gerrity about some of the most interesting—and surprising—secrets of the shoe room.

The NYCB dancers go through 9,000 to 11,000 pairs of shoes each year, including flat shoes, sneakers, jazz shoes, and character shoes. The company has an annual shoe budget of about $780,000.

Younji-Grace Choi at the 2014 USA IBC. Choi is now a dancer with Cincinnati Ballet and will return to the USA IBC as a senior competitor this summer. Photo by Richard Finkelstein, Courtesy USA IBC.

Exciting news today: the USA International Ballet Competition has just announced its list of invited competitors for the summer 2018 competition. TheUSA IBC has invited 119 dancers from 19 countries out of over 300 applicants to compete in Jackson, MS June 10-23.

Since the last USA IBC in 2014 the competition has expanded its age limits; the junior category now allows dancers ages 14-18 and the senior category dancers ages 19-28. Of the 119 competitors this year, 53 are juniors and 66 are seniors. The United States has the highest number of competitors invited (52), followed by Japan (23) and South Korea (14). The other countries represented are Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, Philippines, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The latest front in the controversy over the underrepresentation of female choreographers in ballet is at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. They're facing a petition and choreographer resignation that forced them to rebrand a season and publicly defend their programming.

On February 26, artistic director Ivan Cavallari, who started the job in the summer of 2017, announced the 2018-2019 season, which included a program titled Femmes. The program announcement said the evening would have "woman as its theme," and that Cavallari had "chosen three distinctive voices, rising stars of choreography, to undertake this great subject."

The three voices Cavallari chose to create on the theme of women, however, were all men.

"This was just too much for me, it was the last straw," says Kathleen Rea, a former member of National Ballet of Canada who now freelances, choreographs and teaches in Toronto. Rea says she's been bothered by the dearth of women choreographers throughout her career. But referring to women as "subjects" and excluding them from choreographing on a program about them compelled her to take action.